The US has not yet decided whether to lift a ban on Chinese telecommunication firm ZTE, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says. A suggestion that President Donald Trump might relax sanctions on ZTE has met resistance from a legislative committee, which has voted overwhelmingly for sanctions to stay.

The S&P 500 has capacity to pass 3,000 points by early 2019, says technical analyst Peter Lee, who has set a target of 3,109. Lee acknowledges a long rally is reaching maturity but says a general uptrend is still in place, though he cautions the index might struggle to exceed his target, which could prompt a correction.

Strife within the UK government regarding its Brexit policy is adversely affecting the pound, foreign exchange strategist Viraj Patel says, as the currency continues to lose against the US dollar and the euro. "These fresh political hits could keep sentiment for GBP dented in the near term," Patel says.

Another lava flow from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is likely to reach the ocean today and create more "laze," a type of haze that includes hydrochloric acid and glass particles. Video of the eruption shows blue flames created as burning vegetation yields methane.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis estimates that health insurance premiums in Affordable Care Act markets will increase an average of 15% next year as a result of the repeal of the ACA's individual mandate penalty, rising health care costs and the administration's decision to halt cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers. The number of uninsured people will increase by 3 million between 2018 and 2019, but ACA marketplaces are expected to be stable in most parts of the US over the next 10 years, according to the report.

"Unsure about what to expect from [this] week's launch of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?" writes IIA Vice President of Stakeholder Relations Jim Pelletier in his latest blog. "You aren't alone." Research firm Gartner predicts that by the end of 2018, more than half of companies affected by GDPR will not be in full compliance, Pelletier writes.

Wells Fargo Chief Marketing Officer Jamie Moldafsky said recent news of employees improperly altering corporate customers' documents provides a "very good example" of how the company is proactively looking to fix internal problems. The internal discovery of the issue and quick escalation to regulators is in line with the bank's new campaign, which "is very honest and transparent," Moldafsky said.

Only 35% of college-educated women report feeling confident they can manage investments in their self-directed retirement accounts, compared with 60% of college-educated men and 41% of men who only hold high-school diplomas, according to a Federal Reserve survey. The difference may be exacerbating the gap in retirement savings between the genders, writes Jordan Yadoo.

The European Investment Fund, which is controlled by European governments and a few banks, is moving to a niche market in which banks pay investors fees to cover possible loan losses, critics say. They contend the move gives banks' balance sheets an illusion of health, but taxpayers are exposed to losses if a bank encounters difficulties because no assets actually change hands.